Larry Klayman
July 21, 2014
Feds' terrorist surveillance fails again
By Larry Klayman

Ever since Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been accessing the telephonic and Internet communications – content and metadata – of nearly all 300 million Americans, this spy agency and its sister spook operation, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – along with House Intelligence Committee establishment hacks like Chairman Mike Rogers and Rep. Peter King – have been arguing just how necessary these surveillance programs are to protect us from terrorism. Of course, these Republicans have sided with the NSA, as they are complicit with President Barack Hussein Obama in extending this surveillance far beyond any legitimate purpose. But, their "arguments" are more akin to covering their own political derrieres.

However, in a landmark decision by Judge Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in a case filed by Freedom Watch Inc. for me and my clients Charles and Mary Strange, the court found that the NSA's surveillance programs have proven essentially worthless in combating terrorism. Instead, their "almost Orwellian" tyranny over American citizens appears to be the real purpose, at least in practice. The Stranges had a family member, an NSA cryptologist, who, among 30 others, died at the hands of Taliban terrorists in a mysteriously unexplained helicopter crash with 17 Navy SEALs shortly after the capture and assassination of Osama bin Laden.

Here is what Judge Leon courageously ruled in preliminarily enjoining the NSA from continuing to spy on us illegally:

"The Government does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA's bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack. ...

"Given the limited record before me at this point in the litigation – most notably, the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist attack has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics – I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program as a means of conducting time-sensitive investigations in cases involving imminent threats of terrorism."

And here is what Chief Justice John Roberts recently wrote in a recent landmark case about the tyrannical implications, if not revolutionary dangers, of our government just accessing cell phones without warrants, a practice that is "child's play" compared to NSA/CIA surveillance programs:

"Our cases have recognized that the Fourth Amendment was the founding generation's response to the reviled 'general warrants' and 'writs of assistance' of the colonial era, which allowed British officers to rummage through homes in an unrestrained search for evidence of criminal activity. Opposition to such searches was in fact one of the driving forces behind the Revolution itself. ... The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple – get a warrant."

Now, with the downing this week of another Malaysian jetliner, Flight MH17 – this time with likely tens of Americans on board – in eastern Ukraine, apparently shot down by a surface-to-air missile by terrorist militants funded and trained by Putin's Russia, comes new confirmation that the NSA and CIA surveillance programs, which extend internationally, are ineffective if not worthless, but instead primarily a means to coerce and enslave us to the evil watchful eye of our so-called government. One has to ask the hard question otherwise: Are these intelligence agencies the equivalent of Inspector Clouseau or the Keystone Cops, or are they in reality just a tool for our tyrannical leaders of both parties to rule over our lives? I for one have to conclude the latter. And, if they are doing legitimate spying, then why are Americans paying handsomely for their services? Should we not ask for our money back?

Quite apart from the "performance" of the NSA and CIA in stopping acts of terrorism – and let's not forget September 11, Fort Hood and the Boston Marathon bombing – is the performance of the "Mullah in Chief" after this recent terrorist attack on the Malaysian jetliner. Paying only lip service initially to the tragedy, which has apparently claimed the lives of many Americans, here is what President Obama said while spending most the day callously raising funds for his Democratic Party.

"Before I begin [fundraising], obviously the world is watching reports of a downed passenger jet near the Russia-Ukraine border. And it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy. Right now we're working to determine whether there were American citizens on board. That is our first priority. And I've directed my national security team to stay in close contact with the Ukrainian government. The United States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. And as a country, our thoughts and prayers are with all the families and passengers, wherever they call home."

Seconds later, Obama returned to his prepared remarks making jokes about Joe Biden and the state of Delaware.

Contrast this with President Reagan, who said this upon a similar Russian terrorist attack on Sept. 5, 1983:

"My fellow Americans: I'm coming before you tonight about the Korean airline massacre, the attack by the Soviet Union against 269 innocent men, women, and children aboard an unarmed Korean passenger plane. This crime against humanity must never be forgotten, here or throughout the world. Our prayers tonight are with the victims and their families in their time of terrible grief. Our hearts go out to them – to brave people like Kathryn McDonald, the wife of a congressman whose composure and eloquence on the day of her husband's death moved us all. He will be sorely missed by all of us here in government. The parents of one slain couple wired me: 'Our daughter ... and her husband ... died on Korean Airline Flight 007. Their deaths were the result of the Soviet Union violating every concept of human rights." The emotions of these parents – grief, shock, anger – are shared by civilized people everywhere. From around the world press accounts reflect an explosion of condemnation by people everywhere.

"Let me state as plainly as I can: There was absolutely no justification, either legal or moral, for what the Soviets did."

Thus the intelligence agencies are not only failing to protect us from terrorism and instead are spying on us for the government's own illicit and illegal purposes, but our "Mullah in Chief" is complicit in this. Indeed, the NSA and CIA are primarily the tools of this tyrannical equivalent of a dictator, and his concern with the freedoms and lives of we Americans come secondary to his own evil purposes. This is why the time is long overdue for us to legally rise up and remove him from office.

© Larry Klayman

 

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Larry Klayman

Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, is known for his strong public interest advocacy in furtherance of ethics in government and individual freedoms and liberties... (more)

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